Middleweight Paulo Filho continues to battle personal demons

Diehard MMA fans remember well the day when Paulo Filho (18-1) appeared to fight more than one opponent in the WEC cage.

Filho, 31, was once the top-ranked middleweight in the world, going undefeated in seven years of competition, but things quickly took a turn for the worse.

And though he rebounded from that bizarre November 2008 loss to Chael Sonnen – a bout where he often gazed outside the cage and frequently talked to himself – with three-straight wins, his U.S. manager, Ed Soares, said the grappling ace is still battling personal demons.

“Ever since that situation with Chael Sonnen, he’s been fighting through (issues),” Soares told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) before Filho no-showed the weigh-ins for an expected fight with Yuki Sasaki at Bitetti Combat 6 on Thursday.

Filho spent two months in rehab for a reported chemical dependency and depression prior to November 2008 fight with Sonnen, a current UFC middleweight contender. The WEC’s parent company, Zuffa, LLC, released the Brazilian from his contract following the disappointing performance.

Filho was rumored to be under consideration for Bellator Fighting Championships but was not picked up for the promotion’s first season. This past July, he re-emerged in DREAM with a vintage performance against Melvin Manhoef, submitting the striker with an armbar inside three minutes. He later moved up to light heavyweight for two appearances in Bitetti Combat, defeating Alex Schoenauer by decision and Tatsuhiko Nishizaka by submission in September and December, respectively.

The Feb. 25 fight with Sasaki fell into doubt when Amaury Bitetti, the promoter of Bitetti Combat, this past Saturday announced Filho’s withdrawal from the fight because Filho is “taking care of his problems.”

Then, days later, Bitetti told Tatame.com that Filho would take the fight after all when Sasaki reportedly refused to fight his replacement, former UFC middleweight contender Thales Leites. After all that, Filho no-showed the weigh-ins on Wednesday and said the cancellation arose over the money promised him in his contract.

Filho disputed claims he was still wrestling with chemical dependency.

“They said I’m having problems with drugs and medicines,” he told Tatame. “You can test me and you’ll see. I’m great.”

According to Soares, though, things are not great.

“There’s only so much we can do,” Soares said. “We love Paulo; he’s a great person, he’s incredible. But he’s going through some issues. He’s having some family problems.

“He put himself back together to fight Manhoef, and he’s been winning some fights, but he’s still going through a tough thing.”

Soares said his management team’s plan to move Filho to the U.S. after the Sonnen fight for a positive change in scenery did not materialize.

The manager anticipated a long road for Filho in righting his ship inside and outside of the cage.

“It’s obvious his situation wasn’t created in one or two days, so it’s not going to get fixed in one or two days,” Soares said. “It’s going to be a process to get himself out.”

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